It is oftentimes desirable to reclose a bag once it has been opened, particularly if the bag contains a food product which would spoil or become stale if the bag was allowed to remain open. Various contrivances have been proposed in the past in order to accomplish such a bag-closure function. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,266,711 and 2,601,568 each generally propose a bag closure device which includes a female member which defines a cylindrically-shaped interior cavity and a rod-shaped male member adapted to be mateably received within the female member's cavity. In such a manner, the open end of a bag is captured, and thus closed, between the mated male and female members. These prior proposals, while effective for closing an open bag, do not lend themselves to being mass produced easily and economically.
A hinged closure device supports a removable plastic bag adjacent to its mouth in the proposal of U.S. Pat. No. 3,707,271. The device selectively holds the mouth of the plastic bag in an open position so that refuse, etc., may be placed into the bag or in a closed position wherein the mouth of the bag is closed and sealed.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,727,829 suggests that a bag closure device be formed of a unitary body of molded plastic having a plate with upper and lower portions and an elongate slot provided therebetween. Cooperative latching elements are arranged on the upper and lower portions and are engagable with one another when the upper portion is folded over onto the lower portion thereby sealing the bag.
A number of prior devices exist which employ a longitudinally fluted element so as to close a bag or container as exemplified by U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,825,856; 1,699,549; 1,995,210; and 1,794,577. These devices, however, are usually made of rigid metal and are principally intended to seal a bag until opened by a consumer. Hence, devices of this type are not well suited for reclosing the bag once opened.
A waterproof bathing receptacle is disclosed in U.S. Pat No. 1,899,686 as having an inwardly extending concave groove and an outwardly extending convex rib which forcibly press the walls of the flexible container therebetween so as to seal the same when the groove and rib are interfitted.
As the reader will appreciate, there still exists a need in this art for a bag closure device which reliably functions to releasably close the open end of a flexible bag and is capable of being fabricated economically on a mass scale. The present invention is directed to this need.
According to this invention, elongate male and female members are provided, each having a wall which is generally U-shaped in cross-sectional configuration so as to establish an interior space which is generally cylindrical in configuration. The wall of each of the male and female members terminates in a pair of opposing, separated edge regions which define therebetween a slot extending the member's axial length and being of a dimension which is less than the cross-sectional dimension of the defined generally cylindrical space. The walls of each of the male and female members are also formed of a resilient, shape-retaining material which permits the opposing edge regions to be resiliently displaced relative to one another. Thus, the entry of the male member into the defined generally cylindrical space of the female member is facilitated. In such a manner, the male and female members are capable of being frictionally nested with one another so as to capture, and thus close, a bag therebetween.
In one embodiment, the male and female members are joined to one another by a hinge portion (which preferably includes a region of reduced material thickness) extending along the elongate extent of each so as to permit the male and female members to be folded into nested relationship about a hinge axis parallel to the member's elongate axes. In another embodiment, the hinge is in the form of a flexible element which axially joins adjacent ends of the male and female members so as to not only permit the male and female members to be folded about an axis perpendicular to the member's elongate axes, but also allows relative twisting to occur about the member's elongate axes so that the members are capable of being brought into nested relationship with one another.
Structure is preferably provided so as to facilitate separation of the male and female members from their nested relationship thereby allowing the bag to be reopened. Such separation-facilitating structure, according to one embodiment includes a pair of separation tabs each associated with a respective edge region of the male and female members. In this case, one of the tabs preferably projects outwardly to a greater extent as compared to the other of the tabs so as to facilitate manual separation of the two tabs, and hence manual separation of the male and female members. According to another embodiment, the separation-facilitating structure is in the form of a relieved portion defined in an outwardly turned flange of at least one of the male and female members. The relieved portion thus exposes a corresponding portion of the flange associated with the other of the male and female members so as to more easily facilitate manual separation of the two flanges, and hence separation of the male and female members.
The bag closure devices of this invention are most conveniently fabricated by extruding a plastic material into a preform. If the bag closure device includes a hinge portion extending the elongate extent of the male and female members, then the preform includes a substantially planar central region simultaneously extruded with the male and female members, the latter being parallel, but oppositely oriented, to one another. In such a case a handle may be formed in the hinge portion by removing a registerable pair of sections from that region.
If, on the other hand, the bag closure device includes a flexible element axially connecting the male and female members, then the device is most conveniently fabricated by extruding a continuous generally U-shaped preform. Opposing wall sections of the preform may then be removed so as to establish the connecting element and the male and female members axially connected thereby. In either case, the preform may be severed into discrete segments of any preselected length so as to form the final device.
Other features and advantages of this invention will become more clear to the reader after careful consideration is given to the following detailed description of the preferred exemplary embodiments thereof.